WHILE one St Johnstone player has his sights set on Brazil 2014, another’s World Cup dreams have been dashed.

Debutant Sanel Jahic netted in the 2-0 Scottish Cup win over Livingston to enhance his prospects of making the Bosnian squad but substitute Rory Fallon’s aspirations of emulating a South Africa 2010 campaign with New Zealand were dashed by two play-off defeats from Mexico.

Both men have had to be patient for a chance to impress Perth supporters but Fallon made an impact off the bench against Livi, clattering the woodwork with a trademark header.

“I thought I had scored against Livi but the ball smashed back off the crossbar. If anything maybe I connected with the header too well. It was a great ball in from Dave Mackay. As long as I get balls delivered like that I will score goals,” he said.

“I’ve been trying to get into the team here from day one and that won’t change. The opportunities have been scarce but I get behind the boys and I am professional about it. That is the way I have played for 16 years. I won’t moan about it. I will continue to work hard and stake a claim when I do come off the bench as I did at the weekend.

“It is Aberdeen next but I’d just like to start any game at the moment, never mind against my old club. I just want to play.”

Reflecting on his globetrotting to pull on the All-Whites jersey in Mexico City and Wellington, Fallon insists the experiences were worth every mile.

“The better team won over the two legs, we can’t deny that. The first leg at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City killed us. There was no way back.

“That experience was unreal. The crowd was 107,000. When I went on as a sub I felt blessed just to have a chance to play in that environment.

It is such a famous stadium.

“The game was done but I still enjoyed every second of the experience and I got an assist for our goal in the 5-1 defeat and I scored in the home leg when we played a very young team. It is a time for rebuilding.

“It was an afternoon kick-off in Mexico but thankfully it was overcast. But it was still hard to breath. The pollution is pretty crazy.

“Seven of their players are with Club America. None of the European based players like Hernandez at Man United travelled.

“We were basically facing a club team who work with each other every day while we were travelling from all over the world and had a couple of days to prepare. We were right up against it.

“We were down 3-0 in the home leg but got it back to 3-2. We missed a pen as well so we did have chances but they sucker punched us late on.

“It was great to score at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington because I have fond memories of scoring there to help us get to the World Cup in South Africa.

“The opportunity to be involved in those two games was immense and scoring was good for the confidence.”

Anticipating the return of Derek McInnes to Perth with Aberdeen this weekend, Fallon said: “Aberdeen is a good club and the fans there are long suffering. I’d be delighted to see them get success, but not at our expense this weekend or in the League Cup semi-final. That’s a big one for us because we want to get to the final.

“It’s great we are still in both cup competitions but we will keep striving to climb higher in the top six. Hopefully we can kick on even more.”